The defense has paved the way to the Super Bowl without a ton of star power, and the roster as a whole features plenty of impact players that have flown under the radar. Reader couldn’t picture a better group to walk out onto the field at SoFi Stadium with as the Bengals face the L.A. Rams on Sunday in Super Bowl LVI.
“We brought in an attitude of, ‘We’re going to play defense and worry about our job and worry about what we’re going to do, we’re going to go out there every day and grind,’ and it translates,” Reader said. “… Guys are out there playing. Guys want to play football. They want to go out there and grind. There’s a lot of guys on this team who have been passed on or moved from team to team and whatever, not good opportunities. You know how many free agents we got -- the old team didn’t want them. So that’s where we come in and take the attitude with it.”
The Bengals have headliners like quarterback Joe Burrow, running back Joe Mixon, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and even rookie kicker Evan McPherson, but many of the biggest impact players this season aren’t “household names.” Most of the defense typically would go unrecognized.
Linebacker Logan Wilson said that’s a big reason why this team is so strong.
“I think that we have a lot of similarities,” Wilson said. “I think that one of the big things about our group is no one’s afraid to work. Sometimes there’s points in like a season, there’s ebbs and flows where guys just don’t want to work. You don’t want to get better because it just gets to that point it’s so repetitive, but you know, the guys that we haven’t in the locker room, no one’s afraid to continue to work and work hard to be the best at their position. … I think that everyone on this team is very, very selfless. They don’t care about individual stats as much as they care about whether or not we get the victory at the end of the day. And I think that that’s why we’ve been having so much team success.”
Credit: Jeff Dean
Credit: Jeff Dean
On offense, the last two draft classes have garnered the spotlight, but even Burrow will say the more veteran wide receiver Tyler Boyd doesn’t get enough credit. Tee Higgins and Chase both topped 1,000 yards and have been hyped as two big improvements to the team; however, Boyd wasn’t far off their mark and has been the most reliable of the trio, the go-to third-down guy.
Boyd has 77 straight catches without a drop.
“Tyler is a very underrated part of our offense,” Burrow said this week. “I wish he would get more love because he’s one of the best slot guys in the league. He really understands what we’re trying to do on each play, and he’s always where I expect him to be and he never drops the ball. And so, he’s a guy that I can rely on in critical moments to go and make plays for me. And he’s a great locker room guy as well, so he’s a very invaluable part of what we’re building.”
Tight end C.J. Uzomah fits in that category as well. He’s come up with several clutch catches, including a game-tying 31-yard reception for a touchdown against the Jaguars before McPherson won the game with a last-second field goal. He had two scores that day and another pair in a blowout win at Baltimore.
“He’s doesn’t quite get the accolades and recognition that our receiving corps does, but he certainly deserves probably just as much because of what he’s asked to do,” offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said. “He’s a Swiss army knife in the sense that he can get in there and block, he’s physical, he’s tough, he catches balls, he breaks tackles.”
The defense is full of guys like that, some that have made bigger names for themselves this season but most of whom still stand in the shadows.
Defensive end Trey Hendrickson has gained more national attention this season with his 16.5 sacks, but he came to Cincinnati in free agency facing a lot of doubts from the outside suggesting his double-digit sacks last year with the Saints were a fluke.
Mike Hilton was one of the best blitzing slot corners with Pittsburgh and still had to face free agency last offseason. Former Browns defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi came on a “prove-it” one-year deal, and prior to his injury in the Wild Card game, he quietly improved the interior pass rush while helping Reader plug holes in the run defense.
Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie was another free agent pickup who has been solid all season, and even fellow corner Eli Apple, who is with his fourth team in four years, has been making big plays in recent weeks after struggling much of the year. He wasn’t even supposed to be a starter when training camp began.
“I thought the talent was there for him to be a good player in this league and didn’t want to give up on him and that’s why we gave him a chance this year and he’s made the most of his opportunities,” defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said of Apple.
The linebackers probably go most unnoticed. Many thought the Bengals took Logan Wilson too high in the 2020 draft when they used a third-round pick on him, and the same could be said for Germaine Pratt the year before. Teams picked apart the middle of the Bengals defense last year with those guys getting a lot of playing time, but they’ve developed into key contributors this season and especially down the stretch.
Pratt and Wilson both had game-sealing interceptions in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Safety Vonn Bell had one in the AFC Championship.
“I think that, you know, it’s one thing that they all have in common is they’re all hard working players, they’re guys that want to win,” Anarumo said. “A lot of them come from winning places. And their goal coming here was to kind of jumpstart us and get us going in the right direction. So I think I’ll still remember like was yesterday we had a big, it was almost like a recruiting dinner. We had a free agency night, we had a bunch of guys at a local restaurant. You know, right there they all kind of clicked and you knew you had something special there. You just didn’t know how it was going to turn out but you got we got to guys that have one mindset, that’s to go out and do everything you have to do to prepare to win. I know it sounds a little cliche, but it’s the truth. These guys are old school. They want to win for each other. And it’s shown in how they play.”
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